Does God ever give up?

Ever since raising the question of “Does God ever give up on anyone?” I’ve wrestled with this question. I received some helpful feedback including difficult questions like, “What about Sodom and Gomorrah or the flood or even the fact that hell exists? Aren’t these clear indications that God has given up?" Are they?

First, it’s true isn’t it that God loves all people. His love is constant and never changes. And if that is true, how could He ever give up on one He loves? Just the fact that His love remains is an indication He hasn’t given up.

The prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32) rejects his father and leaves home. The father never gives up. He allows the son to do what he pleases. But his love remains. He never gives up. He can’t force his son to love him or stay home. So he doesn’t. He just hopes he’ll return someday.

Second, I’d suggest that one way to consider this question is to recognize that God allows people freedom to do as they please. And this includes the freedom to sin and to experience the consequences of this sin. One of these consequences is death. It is what we all deserve and whether it happens while we are young or old, it is God’s right to end our lives as a consequence of sin. And sadly, in a fallen world, death comes in tragic ways as a consequence of sin. In a broken world filled with broken people, brokenness happens.

I don’t believe God ever gives up. I do believe some of us do. We give up on God. We walk away. God’s love remains, but He allows us to experience life apart from God. And as indicated throughout Scripture, eternal separation from God (hell) is a real possibility for all of us if we choose to reject God. We give up on God and he allows us to do it. We get what we think we want.

It’s like a broken marriage where one party wants to make it work and does what it takes for this to happen. But if the other party has given up and walks away, what can a person do? You don’t give up, but you are forced to live in a relationship where another has given up. That’s not a relationship.

Finally, this brings to mind the challenge of seeing God as loving and merciful but also as just and jealous. We want God to be about love and mercy. We want to ignore and tone down the justice and the wrath. But we can’t. These exist together. God is just. He does punish. But He also expresses perfect love (even through His justice and wrath). He is merciful.

I appreciated the following comments from an article I found on the internet that helps illustrate this challenging question.

Noah’s Ark is one of the first Bible stories we learn as children . . .

Don’t be fooled: Noah’s Ark is one of the darkest and most heart-wrenching stories in the Bible.

It opens promisingly enough. After Noah’s birth, Lamech prophesies that “out of the ground that the Lord has cursed this one shall bring us relief from our work and from the painful toil of our hands.” Man has been aching under his curse, and Noah will be a savior that helps turn things around.

Meanwhile, God is not pleased with his creation. He’s an artist who had high hopes for a painting, but after struggling with it for far too long finally decides to trash the thing. With a look of disgust, he growls, I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them. All the beauty of creation, all the wonder of Genesis 1, all the creative energy – all for nothing. He has given up on us; the artist grips the canvas to tear it to shreds.

And then he sees one tiny corner of the painting that really did embody the vision he had when he started the project. Everything else is a mess, every other bit is absolute garbage, but “Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.” The artist takes a deep breath, and resolves to give the painting another try.

However, this involves painting over everything else but the little corner and starting almost from scratch.

I’m continually struck by how the fate of creation is bound up with the fate of humanity. God says, “cursed is the earth because of you,” over and over again. First it was thorns and thistles, then utter fruitlessness, and now the earth is engulfed by the crushing chaos of the sea. Back to day one. The only memory of all the previous work drifts precariously atop the waves: a lone ship in an eternal ocean.

On the seventh month the ark rests on the tops of the mountains, and on the third month after that earth is again seen rising from the waters. It’s a type of new creation. The dove Noah sends out brings fresh hope, and he and his family and the animals leave the ark to replenish the earth.

God looks again at his fledgling creation, and commits himself anew to the project. He puts the rainbow in the sky and says “this is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.” He acknowledges that “the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth,” but that’s just something that will need to be dealt with. God intends to mold this thing into what it was meant to be, and he’s not going to destroy it again.

from "God gives up on us . . . almost" (Genesis 5-10)
(found at http://wondersforoyarsa.blogspot.com/2006/06/god-gives-up-on-us-almost-genesis-5-10.html)